


Scattering

by starsystems



Series: summerpornathon 2010 [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Community: summerpornathon, M/M, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-23
Updated: 2010-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-23 02:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/245521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsystems/pseuds/starsystems
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey, Will. Happy birthday," Merlin says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scattering

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Non-A/M challenge at summerpornathon 2010.

It is the first day of the end of summer. Merlin can smell it in the air. The heavy, unmoving heat is gone and the wind smells new, somehow; its coldness like a stranger's touch. He takes another deep breath. The sky above is blue and filled with wispy clouds. Looking up at it makes him dizzy. It feels like he could start floating and then fall into the sky if he doesn't pay enough attention.

Will stirs next to him, slowly waking up, and rolls on his side. He takes one look at Merlin and lets out a short laugh. His breath tickles Merlin's cheek.

"Mmf," Merlin says. Then: "Hey, Will, happy birthday."

"You were dreaming with your eyes open again," Will says, rolls on his stomach and plucks a long blade of grass from the ground. He puts it between his thumbs and blows on it right next to Merlin's ear. Merlin thinks it sounds like wild ducks in the autumn. He doesn't tell Will to stop it, though. Soon, it will be time for harvest and the days of hiding in the tall grass, avoiding duties and napping in the sun are over. Will goes to work on the eastern fields and Merlin in the western fields.

"Putting you two in the same field at the same time just brings more trouble than it's worth," Old Greine had said. He is long dead now, but the villagers still go by his word. Merlin thinks they probably have good reason to.

"Hey, Merlin," Will says and rolls again so that he lands on Merlin, face to face, laughing soundlessly. "Do you have a present for me?"

"That's horrible, Will," Merlin says and rolls his eyes to show how much he _doesn't_ appreciate that line.

But he kisses him anyway.

Will tastes like the wine they stole from Hunith and the blueberries they found in the woods that morning. Merlin wraps his arms around Will's neck and brings him closer, deepens the kiss so that it's hard to breathe.

Will's hands tangle in Merlin's hair.

When the kiss finally ends, Will rolls his hips against Merlin's and presses their foreheads gently together. Merlin watches, cross-eyed, how Will licks his lips. His breaths are hot on Merlin's mouth. Then Will laughs and pokes a finger on Merlin's cheek. "You look ridiculous."

Will's voice is a soft whisper.

 _I love you too_ , Merlin thinks. And: _This is how I want things to be always_.

Merlin arches against Will. He can feel how his shirt clings to his sweaty lower back. A small twig is poking him in the ear and blades of grass stick through the coarse weave of his shirt, prickly against his skin. He grabs the back of Will's neck tightly with one hand and snakes the other between their bodies.

Will presses his face against Merlin's neck and places a soft kiss there, right under Merlin's ear.

Later, when the wind has finally dried their sweat, but when Will's cheeks are still red, Will says: "Can you make shapes out of the clouds?" and laughs.

"I don't know," Merlin says and tries. He manages to make one of the clouds hold a shape of a horse for a moment, before the wind scatters it. Merlin feels Will's laughter all over his body and presses closer to him.

"Make a dragon next!" Will says and winds his arms around Merlin, squirming until they are both resting comfortably.

"I don't know what a dragon looks like. I've never seen one," Merlin says.

"Me neither," Will says. "So I think you can get away with pretty much anything."

*

Merlin opens his eyes and lets out a long, soundless exhale. The sun is almost uncomfortably hot on his skin. The training grounds behind the castle are deserted and the noise from the town and the castle courtyard doesn't reach him there. He thinks about two boys lying in a field and shaping clouds to look like dragons. He thinks of a mouth that tasted like blueberries and says: "Happy birthday, Will," to the cloudless, deep blue sky and waits for the moment when he falls into it.


End file.
